Writing War, Writing Peace is a creative writing anthology written by students who spent a week at The National Archives, learning from our records about the experiences of Nurses in the First World War. Mentored by Melvin Burgess and Sara Robinson, the students were encouraged to explore service records, diaries and photographs to put together their own creative pieces inspired by real events. These stories and poems are the result.

The purpose of this two part document collection is to allow students and teachers to develop their own questions and lines of historical enquiry on various social, economic and political aspects of 1920s Britain. The document icons are labelled so it is possible to detect key themes at a glance and they are arranged in chronological order. In part one the themes covered include: The economy: Geddes Axe, the Gold Standard 1925, unemployment Industrial unrest: General Strike, Hunger Marches 1927 & 1929 First Labour Government 1924 Communist Party of Great Britain Transport: motors cars and trains Role of women In part two the themes covered include: Education Housing BBC Transport: motors cars and trains Holidays, nightclubs and dog racing

A lesson focusing on why school dinners were introduced as a way of improving public health. Around the year 1900 there was a lot of concern about the physical state of the people of Britain. Even though there had been tremendous efforts in the late 19th century to provide better public health, housing and education, many children were still no more healthy than they had been back in the 1840s. The new Liberal government elected in 1906 passed various measures to try to deal with this problem. They were particularly concerned to try to improve the health of children. They passed laws to ensure midwives were notified of each new-born baby, they introduced School Medical Examinations and, in 1906, they gave permission for schools to offer meals to their pupils. But what kind of meals? These documents show how one city, Bradford, carried out an experiment to see how the system might operate.

This lesson provides pupils with the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting documents to be released for years. The supporting sources, detail two of the proposed assassination plans that formed part of Operation Foxley.

This lesson looks at Queen Victoria and her relationship with her family. The lesson could be extended to work with decoding other photographs or portraits.

An online themed collection on the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 . Teachers and students can access to original documents of the period with teacher’s notes, transcripts, timeline and family tree. Audio recordings of most documents open them up to a new audience, and an accompanying Pinterest board brings the collection to life. There are printed Jacobite pamphlets and to a song calling for George I to go home and many other sources.

An online themed collection on the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715 . Teachers and students can access to original documents of the period with teacher’s notes, transcripts, timeline and family tree. Audio recordings of most documents open them up to a new audience, and an accompanying Pinterest board brings the collection to life. There are printed Jacobite pamphlets and to a song calling for George I to go home and many other sources.

In 1882, 74 men and boys lost their lives in an explosion at a coal mine. Almost everyone in the small town of Trimdon Grange near Durham lost a father, brother, husband, or grandfather. Source 1 comes from a popular magazine called the Illustrated London News (1882). Source 2 was written by Tommy Armstrong, who was from the region. All the people and events mentioned in the song are real. This lesson combines History and Literacy to ask pupils to consider how a story is told through narrative poetry.

This lesson plan contains document extracts which are designed to be used in Key Stage 2, probably alongside portrait-study, but can be used for any study of Henry VIII to provide context for the King’s daily life. They add another dimension to the strong sense of personal monarchy which will characterise any study of the Tudors.

This collection of documents introduces students and teachers to the reign of Elizabeth I through the original State Papers held at The National Archives. They have been selected and introduced by eminent historian of the period, Tracy Borman. Students and teachers can use the documents to develop their own questions and explore their own lines of historical enquiry on different aspects of Elizabeth’s reign including the marriage question and succession, her style of monarchy, religious and foreign policy, or her relationship with Mary, Queen of Scots. The documents offer students a chance to develop their powers of evaluation and analysis and support their course work. Alternatively, teachers may wish to use the collection to develop their own resources or encourage students to ‘curate’ their own ‘exhibition’ of the most significant sources on the topic. All documents are supported with some contextual information. Transcripts are provided and more difficult vocabulary is explained in square brackets. Updated - Now with ZIP file of all documents to download.

This lesson can be used with key stage 3 pupils. It considers the story of the Rebecca riots through evidence relating to the nature of the movement, the experience of some of those involved and the reaction of the authorities. hefyd ar gael yn Gymraeg

Gellir defnyddio’r llun hwn gyda disgyblion cyfnod allweddol 3 ym mlwyddyn 8. Mae’n edrych ar hanes helyntion Beca drwy gyfrwng tystiolaeth ar natur y Mudiad, profiad rhai o’r bobl a oedd yn rhan ohonynt ac ymateb yr awdurdodau. Also available in English

From writers to royals, politicians, artists, inventors or campaigners, this selection of sources, based on records held at The National Archives, can be used in the primary classroom to support the National Curriculum element ‘significant individuals’ who have contributed to national or international achievements. The collection is by no means exhaustive but contains some of the popular choices and more for teaching this topic. We hope to add to the collection over time. In addition, we have provided links to other useful resources for ‘significant’ figures. The sources can be used within any scheme of work which is based on developing a sense of chronology where pupils can see that a particular ‘significant individual’ fits into a time frame. Again working with sources in this way will help pupils to register similarities and differences between aspects of life between periods, for example comparing Queen Anne to Queen Victoria or Florence Nightingale to Edith Cavell. Other ‘people’ sources can be used to consider questions of what we are remembering and why? Have things always been the same? Why have some things changed?

Holding History is a stop motion animated film created by students during a week-long workshop at The National Archives. The film was designed to highlight key historical stories from within our collection and covers a variety of time periods and themes. Many thanks to the Friends of The National Archives for their support on this project. When making the film, students were asked to consider: What is The National Archives? How has it changed and developed over the centuries? And what are the challenges, threats and importance of an archive in today’s world? Each student was then given a specific story to research within our records before they could storyboard, design, create and capture their stop motion sets. These finished film clips can now be used by teachers and students as brief overviews, introductions or interest points for the various topics explored within the film. These accompanying questions are designed to work alongside the film clip, to guide students in thinking about what they have learned from the clip or from their lessons and previous knowledge. Some questions can be answered from the film itself, others are intended to be answered after class discussion or independent thought. The clips can also work as a model for student’s creative exploration of history, allowing students to see what can be done to tell stories from history and inspire their own creative work – either through animation, drawing, storytelling or other creative exploits.

From the sealing of Magna Carta, the coming of the Armada, the Great Fire of London, a Christmas ceasefire on the Western Front in 1914 to Decimalisation in 1971, this selection of sources, based on records held at The National Archives, can be used in the primary classroom to support the National Curriculum element ‘significant events’ beyond living memory. The collection is by no means exhaustive, but contains some of the popular choices and other suggestions for teaching this topic. We hope to add to the collection over time. In addition, we have provided links to other useful resources for ‘significant’ events. The sources can be used within any scheme of work which is based on developing a sense of chronology where pupils can see that a particular ‘significant event’ fits into a time frame. Again working with sources in this way will help pupils to register similarities and differences between aspects of life between periods, for example comparing the Great Exhibition of 1851 with the Festival of Britain in 1951. Other ‘events’ sources can be used to consider questions of what we are remembering and why? Have things always been the same? Why have some things changed?

This lesson asks pupils to develop their understanding of the war on the Home Front. Through primary source analysis it examines how those involved on the Home Front were encouraged to deal with the war and the problems that shortages and uncertainty created.

The purpose of this document collection is to allow students and teachers to develop their own questions and lines of historical enquiry on the Cold War. Students could work with a group of sources or single source on a certain aspect. Teachers may wish to use the collection to develop their own resources or encourage students to ‘curate’ their own ‘exhibition’ of the most significant sources on the topic. Another idea would be to challenge students to use the documents to substantiate or dispute points made in the introduction with this collection. We hope that the documents will offer students a chance to develop their powers of evaluation and analysis and enrich their understanding of this topic. Alternatively, teachers could use the National Archives Education Service’s Cold War website alongside this collection for specific questions or activities connected to these documents.

This collection of documents relating to the lives of the Victorians is aimed at any teacher or student engaged in a local study of the Victorian period. The sources could be used to help provide a sense of period and show pupils the type of sources they may encounter when looking at material in their local archive, museum or record office. The collection includes pictures, drawings, maps, photographs, advertisements, reports, census pages, letters etc.

This lesson provides material for examining photographs as evidence. It can also be used as stimulus material for looking at the history of education and can also be useful for pupils to investigate the history of their own school.

A medieval revolution? The purpose of this document collection is to allow Key stage 5 students and their teachers to develop their own questions and lines of historical enquiry on Magna Carta and its legacy throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. The documents themselves are titled on the webpage so it is possible for teachers and pupils to detect different themes and concentrate on documents on similar topics if they wish. Some of the themes include: the relationship between the king and his barons; the relationship between Magna Carta, war and taxation; the intervention of the Pope; and the emergence of parliament as a fundamental part of political life.